Reiss Explains Why He Let Fury Continue

Coming out of December 1st’s WBC world heavyweight championship showdown between Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury, many were wondering how Tyson Fury was able to stand up after a crushing shot by Wilder.

More were confused that the referee Jack Reiss did not stop the fight and allowed Fury to continue after getting to his feet at the count of 9.

“I was evaluating these guys throughout the whole fight (and) in the 12th round, they’d boxed their hearts out, threw a lot of punches but there wasn’t a lot of heavy damage taken by either guy,” he told SiriusXM Boxing.

“They both moved into the 12th round tired but not extremely hurt. When (Fury) got hit and he went down hard, that was an unbelievable knockdown. Two things went through my mind – No 1 always count a champion out and No 2 give this guy the benefit of the doubt and let’s see how he still is. So when I went down to count… not only did I get down, I scooted in so he could see my hand and hear my voice.

Reiss would go on to explain that: “I said three, four… he was grimacing, his eyes and his cheeks, he was grimacing so I knew he was awake and then when I said five his eyes popped open like I startled him. He rolled over and got up and said “I’m OK! Jack I’m OK” or whatever he said. I said, ‘Do you want to continue?’, he said ‘Yes’ and put his arms on my shoulders. I pushed his arms off and said walk over there, come back to me and show me you’re OK. He did and we let it go.

“It is the referee’s opportunity to make sure the fighter who is hurt can intelligently defend himself because you’re about let a guy come hurtling across the ring and finish this guy. People started making them walk in a straight line, any drunk can walk in straight line. Doctors taught us it is hard to hide things are off when they have to change direction. That’s what I was doing.”